Georgia Southern University Announces Fall 2011 Commencement Speakers

December 1, 2011

Georgia Southern University has selected three speakers to speak at its three commencement ceremonies on Friday, Dec. 16, 2011 at Hanner Fieldhouse.

The Honorable Fay Sanders Martin, a Senior Judge for the Superior Courts of Georgia, will speak at the 9:00 a.m. ceremony.  During her career, Judge Martin has been a woman of “firsts”.  She was the first female attorney in Bulloch County, Ga., the first woman appointed to the Georgia Superior Court bench, and the first female chief superior court judge in the state. She was also the first mother to swear in her daughter as an attorney in Georgia. Her many honors and awards include the Amicus Curiae Award from the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Tradition of Excellence Award from the State Bar of Georgia and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Georgia Southern University.

Judge Martin attended what was then Georgia Southern Teachers College (now Georgia Southern University), graduating in 1955. She went on to earn her law degree and later an Honorary Juris Doctorate from Woodrow Wilson College of Law in Atlanta.  Since her graduation, she has created and endowed both the Judge Faye Sanders Martin Fund for Office of Pre-Law Advisement and the Judge Faye Sanders Martin Honors Program Scholarship for Georgia Southern students.

E. Lynne Weisenbach, who currently serves as Vice Chancellor for Educator Preparation, Innovation and Research at the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia (USG), will speak at the 11:00 a.m. ceremony. In her current role, she is responsible for the USG’s strategic goals on educator preparation, college access and completion, and serves as the USG liaison with other state agencies and national partners in those arenas.  She plays a leadership role in Georgia’s overall P-20 initiatives, including serving as USG lead on Georgia’s Race to the Top initiative and as the state’s liaison to Complete College America. She holds faculty rank at the University of Georgia and Georgia State University.  Weisenbach has served in leadership roles at the national level for a variety of professional organizations across the P-20 spectrum.

Dick Escue, senior vice president and chief information officer (CIO) for RehabCare Group, will serve as the commencement speaker for the 1:00 p.m. ceremony.  Escue has been a healthcare CIO for more than 20 years, and has led IT teams as large as 600, and as small as 50.  In his current role, he leads an IT team that supports long-term acute care hospitals, nursing, hospice, assisted living, and rehab centers across the country.  Prior to joining RehabCare Group, he served as CIO at Sisters of Mercy Health System in St. Louis, Mo. and Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corporation in Memphis, Tenn.

Most recently, Escue leveraged the use of Cloud Computing solutions, as well as Consumer Technology (primarily the Apple iPhone and iPad) to achieve industry leading IT efficiency metrics. He is frequently called upon as an expert speaker at conferences focused on Cloud Computing, and Mobility.

He is a graduate of Memphis State University with an MBA in Marketing and a BA in Management Information Systems

Fall 2011 Commencement Ceremony Details

9:00 a.m. Ceremony

College of Graduate Studies (COGS)
College of Science and Technology (COST)
College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) 

11:00 a.m. Ceremony

College of Graduate Studies (COGS)
College of Education (COE)
College of Public Health (COPH)
Interdisciplinary BS (Intl Trade)
Interdisciplinary BA (Intl Studies)

1:00 PM Ceremony

College of Graduate Studies (COGS)
College of Business Administration (COBA) )
College of Information Technology (CIT)
College of Health and Human Sciences (CHHS)

Note: All three ceremonies will be held inside Hanner Fieldhouse.

Commencement Webcast: Georgia Southern will make each ceremony available live online at: www.georgiasouthern.edu.  Friends and family that are unable to make it to the ceremony can view the Web cast directly from Georgia Southern’s Home Page by following the Commencement link. The broadcast will begin a few minutes before the start of each ceremony.

Local Television: Georgia Southern University’s Commencement broadcast will be available in Statesboro to Northland Cable subscribers on Channel 99.  Unfortunately, the ceremony is not currently available to DirecTV or DISH subscribers.

Campus Television: Georgia Southern will broadcast each ceremony live on Channel 90 on campus.  Channel 90 is accessible from any television that is located on the campus (including residence hall rooms, etc.).